St George’s Barracks in the spotlight as Rutland local plan comes under Government planning inspector’s scrutiny

The fate of a former army barracks is proving controversial once again as public scrutiny of a council's 'local plan' begins.

Three years on from the withdrawal of its old local plan, when Rutland County Council went into political meltdown over the question of building 2,000 homes at St George’s Barracks near Edith Weston, the development is back in the spotlight.

The council has drafted a local plan to provide direction as to where new homes and industries will be built in Rutland. To turn the draft into a working document, it is being examined in public by government appointed inspector Katie Child. She will then make a ruling about whether the plan is ‘capable’ of managing development decisions.

Today was the start of a six-day hearing that will cover future housing, employment, nature and infrastructure.

The council's headquarters in Oakham were packed with lawyers representing housebuilders, planning consultants, residents, parish councillors and the council’s own staff in the debates.

The St George’s Barracks site is earmarked by the council for development at an unspecified time in the future, but the Ministry of Defence’s planning consultant Michael Davies argued the site should be in the plan under discussion, because of the significant costs of keeping the site secure when the military moves out, which would be shouldered by taxpayers.

Military personnel are due to leave next year, with the site then becoming redundant.

Mr Davies said instead of considering the new proposal for 350 to 500 homes the council had viewed the plan on an outdated 1,000 homes figure. He said the Ministry of Defence's proposal would be for the brownfield parts of the site to be developed for housing and any green space left alone.

He said: “To say we have to wait two, four, six years, from a Government perspective puts a huge uncertainty on a public asset.”

He claimed the Treasury would be very interested in why the council had decided not to help with developing a public asset.

Peter Goatley KC, acting for the housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, said if the authority did not change its course on allocating land at the barracks for development, it could face a legal challenge in the courts.

The planning inspector Ms Child said she would like the council to ‘go away and reflect’ on the matter.

Chris Donovan, who chairs Cottesmore Parish Council, said the county council had not consulted enough with parish councils and communities about the local plan.

When asked by Ms Child if he felt the council had not met its statutory duty, he said that was for her to decide, but that he wanted the county council to consult more in future.

Due to changes to housebuilding targets introduced by the Labour Government, the local plan being examined will be out of date as soon as it is adopted, and was referred to at the examination as a ‘transitional plan’.

The Government’s new housing allocation means Rutland’s demand will more than double to 266 homes per year. The council’s head of planning Roger Ranson said that would equate to an additional 4,500 to 5,000 homes being built in the county.

He said there was an enormity in the task of meeting those numbers and said "there is a good chance all areas of Rutland will be affected by the new housing".

He anticipated a second local plan would be adopted by 2028, although he was reminded the impending local government reorganisation might disrupt this.

This hearing is expected to end on Thursday next week (September 18).